Talk nerdy to me

A really interesting talk

 


I am fascinated by most part of the speech. A number of things are really agreeable and should be kept in mind.

But I am not so sure about the part on making science and mathematics relevant. Some scientific and mathematical discoveries have no application at all. Applications of scientific and mathematical theories are usually found decades after the theories are formulated.

We have to respect the fact that some people do science and mathematics because they love them. And mathematics is the language of the universe; to fully appreciate the beauty, a minimum understanding of mathematics is necessary.

Smart Animals

Some animals are really smart. Watch the video:


If you think the above animals are smart, you should see the video below!


The video shows some of the really interesting findings about animals.

• Animals are able to communicate with one another using language (sort of) or some forms of communication rather incomprehensible to humans.
• They cooperate. Monkeys living in a social group have certain 'ritual' that proof loyalty to their tribe. Hmm ...
• The first video shows the bird that can plan ahead! If you think this is smart, wait till you see , in the 2nd video, monkeys and birds that display 2nd-order theory of mind! How deceptive. 
• Animals learn. They also educate their young. The meerkets featured actually scaffold the learning for their young!
• Animals has memory. You should look at the crow. And ...scanning the crow's brain reveals that it also shows fear.
• A vain elephant has self-consciousness. It looked at itself on a mirror. 
• Bonobos like to have fun!

Physics and Music & instruments & hearing

Physics lectures can be music to the ears!

Why we need explorers?

We need curiosity-led science, curiosity-led learning.

We need physicists, scientists and engineers.

We need science educators.

 

The Code

Maths is beautiful!

It is a pity that I am not really good at mathematics. But, what the heck, I think I know enough to see the beauty of it.

Watch The Code, presented by Marcus Du Sautoy.

The mathematics is the language of life. More generally, the universe it seems is written in mathematics.

Watch the youtube playlist by clicking the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RAtFSEkFho&feature=BFa&list=PL26EAE8A22F2E6ABE&lf=results_main

Here is a snippet of some of the clips I find really interesting:

2 great scientists and science educator!

Just bought 2 books from Kinokuniya and will be spending my next few weeks savoring them. The authors are 2 living scientists I respect the most. They are the heroes of science education  : making science so accessible to the public, yet never compromising its rigor.

Walter Lewin

Read this ... and realize that science is all around us. I can't find any more apt title for this book. The title is self explanatory - For the Love of Physics.

He just retired a few months ago and this is his farewell lecture based on the book (loosely, I think)




Richard Dawkins

The next book is Magic of Reality. This books describes myths and folklores ( we heard quite a number of them in our childhood) from all of the world, and then, it provides scientific explanations to them. This is actually meant for children.  Well, I am still a child at heart and am sure will enjoy reading it and the nice pictures inside.

Richard Dawkins also has made a number of films, some of which are controversial, I must say. Below is a series of lectures he gave in 1991. This is the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures for Children. You can click on the print screen below to go to its YouTube playlist. This is an excellent example of how science can be interesting and be made so fascinating to children.

On astrology and stickyboards

A video debunking one of the many pseudosciences, astrology.

Also, today attended course on using technology. Know of this interesting stickyboard. Feel free to add a sticky, picture or a video.

How scientists see the world

Science is interesting

" You don't like it? Go somewhere else!" Richard Feynman.

"Science is interesting, if you don't agree, you can fuck off." Richard Dawkins quoting an editor of New Scientist.

Beauty of a Flower

"All kinds of interesting questions which shows that a science knowledge only adds to the excitement and mystery and the awe of a flower." Richard Feynman.

Placebo Effect

Warning: not for the faint-hearted:

On Statistics

Two recommendations:

1. An interesting read on statistics - Drunkards Walk, How Randoness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Milodinow, a physicist.

A brief look: The author talks about his book.

2. Visualizing statistics!

For those who want to try out the software Gapminder, here is the link:

http://www.gapminder.org/desktop/

Michael Shermer - The Skeptics

University of Southampton

This is Glen Eyre Hall of residence at University of Southampton. Brought my students on a 2 week study trip.



School of Electronics and Computer Science



This is what science is all about. This is the Tony Davis High Voltage Laboratory. The students are building High Voltage lifters!



The Hartley library. I understand that this is among the oldest building here. Part of the building was used as a hospital in World War I?!?!?


Now it is such a wonderful to study. Notice the lavender just outside the library?

The arrow of time

Have you ever wonder what exactly is time? How do we measure time?

The fact that we can measure or even define time at all is that there are changes in our environment. We measure time by oscillations of objects that are repeatable at a constant rate, meaning periodic - for example, the swinging of a pendulum, the 'rise and fall' of the sun, and the vibration of quartz crystals. If nothing changes, how do we measure time? Is there even time in the first place? Hmm ...

Changes can be classified into 2 types: the reversible changes (sort of those which I have described in the previous paragraph) and the irreversible changes. An example of irreversible change is the cracking of an egg, think humpty dumpty (all the kings' horses and all the kings' men, couldn't put humpty dumpty together again).We cannot exactly rearrange the molecules of the cracked egg back to its original form. There are tonnes of irreversible changes : flowers wither, we grow old. It is these sort of irreversible changes that points the arrow of time.

A more rigourous way to describe these processes is by using entropy, $$S=k_b\text{ln}\Omega$$ , the measure of disorderness. The second law of thermodynamics says that the entropy of the a close system tends to increase or remains the same. $$\Delta S=Q\left(\frac{1}{T_2}-\frac{1}{T_1}\right)\geq 0$$ . To put it simply, a system will tend to become more disorderly; a nicely stacked paper will tend to get untidy. But why?

Because the number of possible ways for being untidy, the papers scattered in many different ways, is more than the number of ways of being orderly - stacked up nicely, one on top of another. Let me illustrate using another example. There are so many different connecting cables that joins up my computer, keyboard, mouse, modem, CPU ... that makes them function properly. There are very many possible ways of connecting them in the wrong way, but the number of ways to connect them so that the computer works properly is very limited by contrast!

Therefore work needs to be done to 'restore' the state to a lower entropy. That is why sweeping the floor of scattered papers and arranging them in order is hard work!

...... ok, this is hard work ...... I shall rest and let the expert do the talking ...

So I have embedded the 2 videos by a cosmologist Sean Carroll who can provide some possible enlightening answers to the questions on time.

Part 1 of the video is on the basics of entropy. A really good introduction!

Part 2 of the video discusses how entropy is applied to our universe and daily life. Really really cool stuff!!!

>

Fossil

Attended the 3-day International Science Education Conference (ISEC) in NIE.

Refreshing! Superbly wonderful. Learnt a lot from just 3 days. Particularly impressed with educators from other countries. They have done so much for their students. Was humbled. An eye-opener.

Attended a workshop on teaching Science Inquiry using fossil. The lecturer brought some fossil for hands-on session.

Getting our hands dirty. Literally. But the point about learning science is letting students (in fact anyone, including adults) to explore, conduct experiments, analyse results, evaluate , and then communicate and discuss the findings ... That's the way to learn science, to make the subject interesting. It is a sad fact that students who take physics as a subject is decreasing.

It is not just about learning from textbook, isn't it?

Then you may ask where does the role of textbook comes in?

Comparing

This is when we compare our findings with what other people have done. By comparing, I mean critically compare and evaluate.

Science Inquiry

Science Argument: The Toulmin Model

1. Claim: the position or claim being argued for; the conclusion of the argument.
2. Grounds: reasons or supporting evidence that bolster the claim.
3. Warrant: the principle, provision or chain of reasoning that connects the grounds/reason to the claim.
4. Backing: support, justification, reasons to back up the warrant.
5. Rebuttal/Reservation: exceptions to the claim; description and rebuttal of counter-examples and counter-arguments.
6. Qualification: specification of limits to claim, warrant and backing. The degree of conditionality asserted.

More videos on getting the hands dirty for science. Mythbusters in the Discovery Channel! Here is a link to one of the youtube channels:

http://www.youtube.com/user/mythbustersuncut

Isn't this science all about?

Lies on lipids?

I'm quite sure most of us would have heard about the benefits of omega-3s fats. How can we not? The advertising is so rampant; foods from soya milk to margarine boost themselves fortified with omega-3s fatty acids, claiming all sorts of health benefits.

What the advertisers don't want you to know is that there are actually 2 types of omega-3s:

• the long chain fatty acids, the goods ones, from fish (and of course more expensive), and
• the shorter chain counterparts, the less beneficial ones (and cheaper) from flax seeds and soya.

Of course they will not tell you which type of omega-3s is used to fortified their product. The claim that the food is fortified with omega-3s is of course not wrong, but this half-truth, this purposeful withholding of information is , in my opinion, morally worse. It is because it intentionally misleads people to buy their products. In order to increase their sales, they disregard the whole truth and compromise the health of the consumers.

To complicate things further, the benefits of omega-3s can be offset by the increase intake of omega-6s. If you were to remember, we consumers are also asked to replace the saturated fats, such as butter and lard, with the healthier omega-6s unsaturated fats from maize and sunflower oils. The story is not that simple. See details below. It is an abstract from the recent article from The Economist.

You can get the full article at:

http://www.economist.com/node/14743783

and

http://www.economist.com/node/14743757

Eating healthily is sometimes not that simple. But, that does not give the advertisers an excuse to 'simplify' the information given to consumers. We must demand more rigour in their testing and research, and more accurate reporting of information.

On a more general note, it is not uncommon to see people 'simplify' information when disseminating or communicating it to others. We have to ask ourselves are we truthful, sincere and accurate about the information communicated; or, do we have an intention to hide and mislead, packaged in innocent pretence?

Two Minds, One theory

Visited the Two Minds, One Theory exhibition in the Botanic Garden.
I know a little about the Theory of Evolution and have read some parts of On the Origin of Species, but to look at the exhibits is a different thing altogether. Admittedly, I'm rather disappointed by the number of exhibits - much too few. Nonetheless, there are a few take back.

A recent article in The Economist compares Darwin as important in scientific contribution as Kepler . Both scientists' theories revolutionize the way we view the world.This is the 6th edition of the Origin of Species, by means of Natural Selection. Wow!


I don't know Wallace ever come to Singapore, and that the Malay Archipelago is of so much interest to him. I also don't know the Orang Utan is of such importance to the theory. Honestly, I have never been really fascinated about Orang Utan.
When Queen Victoria saw an Orang Utan in London Zoo, she remarked that it was

"frightful, and painfully and disagreeably human."

But don't be mistaken, we are not really that similar. Actually, genetically, we are more related to chimpanzee as the 2 videos below shows:








A Tale on Tails
My first reaction when I see this chart is similar to the reaction of many Darwin's contemporaries when they know about the Origin of Species : this is so simple, why haven't I thought of it!

I have been to wet fish market, supermarket, aquarium, dive in some many places ... I have ate so many of them and yet ... it never come across to me that the tails of the fishes are evolved to adapt to their livelihood.

Tuna and swordfish have tails which propels very fast to enable them to over long distances, but are not able to perform quick manoeuvre ( because there is not much need to). On the other hand, slow swimmers like flounders have round fins that are flexible which help them to escape ...

More details in the picture!(click to enlarge)

I would sure look at a fish tail with a different light now.

And if you notice, the tails of mammals ( dolphins, whales ...) living in the sea are entirely different! Marine mammals generally flap up-and-down for propulsion, rather than left-and-right like in the fishes.

Garden of Evolution
Then I visited the Garden of Evolution. I have been there before a few years back, but after visiting the exhibitions of Wallace and Darwin, I can appreciate the seemingly empty stuff more, much much more.



Life began as a primordial soup?
I have always been interested in graphical representation and charting. What strikes me in this one chart that contains so much information - different types of green plants at different time periods, the temperature range and diversity . So DENSE in information, yet some simple to read. Elegant!


The evolution of life from primordial soup of chemicals seems unbelievable. A search in Youtube on the tree of life gives:


Honestly, after watching the video ... still unbelievable! Wow.

Okay , enough of chim chim stuff ... On another note ...
These brightly coloured insects is actually parasitic. Ouch!

Yet again - Laser & Holography

Try to make the laser holography again, with a different set up.


Still didn't work?!?!?!

Too tired to troubleshoot for the moment ... need some rest before brain can be engaged properly ...

Laser and Holography

I was trying to make a hologram from my photonics project. Apparently, not very successful. Can't really see the image ... still wondering why ... still trying to figure out and give another shot next week.

Laser is actually an acronym -
Light
Amplification by
Stimulated
Emission
Radiation

The picture below is a laser - yes , the black one. It doesn't look like the normal laser-pointer-type laser, it is ... hmm... more powerful ... Well size does matters.

The table with holes on it is an optical table. It is used to help alignment of the lenses and mirrors and beam splitters ...